Top 3 Cambodian Soups

Samlar machu, meaning sour soup in Khmer, is a traditional dish made with meat, fish, or seafood and vegetables cooked in a sour broth base. The soup usually contains seasonal local vegetables and herbs such as Cambodian water spinach, shallots, scallions, tomatoes, kaffir lime leaves, slek kantrop, hot basil, cilantro, and lemongrass. There’s also a version that calls for pineapples. Other key ingredients in this dish are minced prohok, a fermented fish sauce, and Cambodian kroeung, a type of curry, while the typical souring agents include krasaing fruit seeds, tamarind, or kaffir lime juice. Samlar machu is usually flavored with fish sauce, fried garlic, and chilis, and it is commonly eaten with jasmine rice for lunch. In Cambodia, the variations on this sour soup are limitless, and various vegetables and herbs can be used in its preparartion, depending on the region and the seasons.Expand

Ngam ngov is a traditional sour soup that is typically made with preserved lime, meat, green onions, fried garlic, fish sauce, sugar, and sea salt. Apart from the tart flavor imparted by the preserved lime, the soup gets a pleasant fragrance from makrut lime leaves and a spicy kick from red chilis. A typical Cambodian wedding dish, the soup is traditionally prepared with duck, although these days it most commonly features chicken or pork. Ngam ngov is usually topped with some freshly chopped cilantro or culantro on top, and it is typically accompanied by steamed white rice. This zesty-flavored soup embraces the sourness that is an all-too-familiar and highly appreciated flavor by the Cambodian palate and an unmistakable trait of Cambodian cuisine.Expand

Samlor kako, also known as samlor korko is a traditional national dish, a spicy fish soup with various vegetables. In Khmer, samlor means soup, and korko means to mix or to stir, so it is a stirred, mixed soup cooked with an abundance of vegetables according to preference. Typically, pumpkin, papaya, green banana, eggplant, and long beans are used in preparing samlor korko, but any available vegetables will do. According to a local legend, the dish has been the king's favorite, and there used to be hundreds of vegetables and fruits in the popular soup. Fish meat is mixed with prohok, a fermented fish sauce, and then all the vegetables are added to the pot along with boiling water so the dish can be slowly cooked over moderate heat. Due to numerous ingredients used in the dish, it takes some time to prepare it, but the results are always worth it for the complex range of flavors the dish offers.Expand